Ex-Attorney General Vahanvati dead

Legal luminary and former attorney general of India Goolamhoossein Essaji Vahanvati died following cardiac arrest at a private hospital here Tuesday evening, official sources said. He was 65.

G.E. Vahanvati

He is survived by his wife and son.

Vahanvati had been ailing with a lung infection since some time.

Solicitor general of India for five years from 2004, he was appointed the 13th attorney general of India, or the government’s top lawyer, in 2009 for a three-year term, which was extended by another two years in 2012.

However, after the National Democratic Alliance government came to power in the 2014 polls, Vahanvati resigned from his post May 27.

Vahanvati had served as advocate general of Maharashtra, when he successfully represented the state in the famous multi-billion-rupee stamp paper scam and practised as a topnotch lawyer in the state.

Among other things, his field of specialization was constitutional law.